LAHORE – The Lahore police on Friday lodged the First Information Report (FIR) against dozens of people who harassed a woman wearing a shirt with Arabic-script print a couple of days ago in Ichhra Bazaar.
The suspects accused the woman of “blasphemy” as they confused the Arabic alphabet and words with the Quranic verses, endangering her life.
However, timely action by the police was also lauded in and outside Pakistan when the video clips showed the heroic role of a woman police officer, Gulberg circle ASP Syeda Sheharbano Naqvi, who confronted the mob and rescued the woman.
An official says the police high-ups were under immense pressure not to register an FIR against the suspects and avoid possible confrontation with some religious sections, notorious for resorting to violent agitation in the past. However, some senior government officers were of the view that letting the miscreants off the hook would not only reflect poorly on the law enforcement agencies, but also embolden the ‘extremists’ to repeat such acts in future.
